PITTSBURGH — If the Blue Jackets are going to hang with the Pittsburgh Penguins in their first-round playoff series, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky will need to play like the NHL’s top goaltender, as he did during the regular season. He’ll need to “steal” one, maybe two games.

The last thing the Blue Jackets need is for Bobrovsky to be the second-best goaltender on the ice.

Bobrovsky’s early gaffe wasted another strong start by the Blue Jackets, and a sloppy goal he allowed early in the third period pretty much extinguished all hope they had to pull even in the series.

The Penguins won 4-1 on Friday before 18,622 at PPG Paints Arena, taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series as it heads to Nationwide Arena for Game 3 on Sunday.

“This is definitely a tough game to lose,” Bobrovsky said. “The series is going on, so we have to stay together, regroup and go to work. I could be better obviously in these two games. If you lose two games, the goalie can be better. But the series goes on. I’ll keep working.”

Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists, while Jake Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist also scored for the Penguins.

But the Penguins’ star was goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who turned away 39 shots.

The Blue Jackets’ only goal was scored by Pittsburgh native Brandon Saad, who was benched by coach John Tortorella for poor play late in Wednesday’s Game 1.

After a milquetoast offensive effort in Game 1, the Blue Jackets were a heavy offensive club, creating traffic in the “hard” areas. They had 80 shot attempts. But they couldn’t score on Fleury, who has been brilliant through the first two games (72 shots, 70 saves).

“I don’t have one (complaint) about the team,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. “Not one. I’m anxious to get our suits on again and get at it in our building. Hopefully, we’ll keep banging away and get some puck luck and see if we can’t get some goals scored. But we played the way we need to play.”

The Blue Jackets were rolling early, taking the first eight shots of the game and pinning the Penguins in their own zone with a relentless forecheck.

But then Bobrovsky made the kind of mistake that has pock-mocked Fleury’s career. He came out of the net to the play the puck, but then was indecisive with it, allowing Pittsburgh’s Conor Sheary to disrupt him and gain possession, starting a sequence that led to a tap-in goal for Crosby as Bobrovsky scrambled to get back in place. The Penguins’ first shot of the game made it 1-0.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Bobrovsky said. “It’s a mistake and I take that (one).”

The Jackets pulled to 1-1 on Saad’s goal off the rush at 7:00 of the second period. But only 51 seconds later, the Penguins finished a 2-on-1 to take the lead for good.

Malkin made it 3-1 at 2:01 of the third when he banked in an odd-angle shot off Bobrovsky, who is now 2-8-0 in the playoffs.

“We have full confidence in Bob that he’s going to shut the door,” captain Nick Foligno said. “He supports us after lots of games.”

aportzline@dispatch.com

@Aportzline

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